Sorry for my tardiness. I've been away since yesterday afternoon ...
I hope it goes better than in '98.
Posted on 02/28/2003 2:42:55 PM PST by Notwithstanding
Catholic League president William Donohue commented on the decision reached today by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upholding a challenge to its decision banning the Pledge of Allegiance because of the words “under God.” Here are his remarks:
“Two things need to be done immediately: teachers and students should practice civil disobedience and the judges must be impeached.
“It is up to the teachers in the nine western states affected by this decision to break the law: they should instruct their students on the meaning of civil disobedience and then practice it. All they need to do is call the cops and local TV reporters and then recite the Pledge of Allegiance in their presence. It needs to be shown on television all over the world that as the U.S. prepares to go to war to maintain the liberties symbolized in the Pledge, there are brave men, women and children at home who are prepared to fight tyranny on our own soil.
“Iraq’s problem is tyranny of the minority. Ironically, that’s our problem as well. But the Iraqi people at least stand to be liberated and have their tyrant deposed. We need to do the same with ours, albeit with different means: impeachment proceedings against the two federal judges who made this decision should commence as soon as possible. Make no mistake about it, it is not enough for the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn this ruling. Judicial malpractice has been committed and those responsible must be removed from the bench. They should be removed not because most Americans disagree with them but because of jurisprudential incompetence.”
I am old enough that when I learned the pledge, the phrase wasn't in there.Exactly. In their zeal to sneak in a government endorsement of religion through the back door, they took a unifying pledge and added a divisive clause. Anytime the Pledge is recited in public, the synchronization of the recitation falls apart after "one nation".Adding it was a pathetic little slap at "Godless Comunism" and acomplished nothing except to break the word flow of thte pledge and cause division among Americans.
It is past time to take it out and use the original pledge.
Hopefully the plaintiffs challenged the 1954 law that added "under God", as well as the Constitutionality of saying the "new" Pledge in schools. If that's the case, the Supremes can simply invalidate it as religiously based (as they will no doubt do if they look at the legislative history). If not, they are likely to refuse to decide an issue which had not been brought before them, and feel compelled to toss the whole thing. Which would be a shame.
-Eric
I learned the Pledge of Allegiance with Under God in it and I'll not unlearn it ever.
Why? Is there somewhere in the Constitution that recommends or suggests that we say pledges to symbols? Wait a minute!! The pledge wasn't around then was it? Sorry but no can do. It's a socialist pledge meant to 'bond' the nation together after the Constitution had been subverted 30 years prior by the government of these United States
Well, maybe you can explain to us why "under God" was not added to the pledge until the 1950s, if God has blessed us since the inception. It never occurred to anyone to do so until the Red Scare of the 1950s? The reality is that "under God" was added not for religious reasons, but to contrast us with "godless Communism." Which, obviously, is true enough. But, hardly worth changing something that had been in existence for 150 years.IIRC, the Pledge was actually written in 1892, revised in 1924, and officially adopted in 1940.
Still, the addition was clearly a religious endorsement which does not belong in a patriotic affirmation meant for a secular nation. The mention of a deity alone is religious, let alone a declaration of subordination to same.
-Eric
Sorry for my tardiness. I've been away since yesterday afternoon ...
I hope it goes better than in '98.
Do you really think it makes anyone more devout because it's in the pledge or on the money?If I cash a check that says "Vote Hillary 2004" in the comments section, am I endorsing Hildebeast? Or for that matter the bank that issued the check?
-Eric
does the ruling ban the pledge or just the coercive recital of it with the words "under god" -- added by an act of congress?The Ninth District did not believe it was in its authority to change the "official" Pledge by invalidating the 1954 law. It ruled that the Pledge as it exists could not be recited. I beleive there was a state law mandating recitation of the "official" Pledge. Apparently, a school that chose to leave out the divisive words could still do so.
-Eric
See! The unthinking emotional part that I predicted exists in your first post to me. There’s nothing in my previous post that would lead a rational man to conclude any of the garbage that you just accused me of.
I suspect that if any kind of civil disobedience is enacted, however orderly, it will be associated with screaming unbalanced "right wingers" that CBS/ABC/NBC/CNN will put out front and work to define the RP with.
Very well said!! I can remember starting every day with the pledge, a devotion and prayer. Then every 6 weeks, we had an assembly of all the grades in the auditorium which was usually led by a Church of Christ minister. I have never been a member of that branch of Christianity but we all appreciated what he did. He was teaching by example that there was a power greater than us who we should thank every day for this country. We also did song rounds or whatever you call them at these assemblies. We never had any of the trouble that kids get into today. I really appreciate my upbringing. That was just the way things were done back then and believe me, not one person complained about saying the pledge, saluting the flag or having the devotion every day.A private school may do all this without any legal problems whatsoever. A public school, as an agency of the government, should not endorse any specific faith or groups of faiths. Religion is none of the government's business.
-Eric
Hey, just wanted to let you know, you forgot a couple of words, UNDER GOD!!!!Where in the Constitution is there any reference to the American nation being subordinate to any deity? (no, the date does not make that reference).
-Eric
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